In our latest report, The State of Social 2024, we noticed four major trends publishers need to know about.
The first trend we covered was how media & news publishers are growing on social sites.
The second stop on our State of Social 2024 journey explores how social media audiences are cross-pollinating and becoming more permeable. This new trend opens up opportunities for publishers and advertisers to widen their horizons and reach new demographics.
Social media creators understand that modern social audiences have many evolving interests. So when a beauty influencer also posts fitness content, it’s likely to resonate with a good portion of their ‘beauty audience’.
Multifaceted audiences are highly valuable to marketers because they can reach their target demo while also expanding beyond it.
Let’s look at some of the most successful category cross-pollination we’ve seen so far.
Sports media leverages pop-culture power couples
It’s impossible to discuss cross-over audiences without mentioning Taylor Swift and her relationship with 2024 Super Bowl winner, Travis Kelce. When the singer wasn’t gracing the stage of her Eras Tour, she was shown on the NFL big screen attending Kansas City Chiefs games. Seemingly overnight, the NFL won a massive Swiftie following.
From December 2023 to January 2024, Swift’s Instagram audience overlap with the NFL grew by 5x.
As the football season progressed, NFL social channels featured more and more celebrity girlfriends and wives to appeal to their growing female audience. TikTok beauty influencer Alix Earle was featured with her Miami Dolphins boyfriend, Braxton Berrios, across NFL’s social channels throughout the 2023-2024 season. Tubular’s social video insights found that content about Earle and the NFL reached 150+ million cross-platform views in the past year and she was even invited to present an award at the NFL Honors.
Here’s an example of how the NFL featured athletes’ wives and girlfriends in order to appeal to a female audience — the comments speak for themselves!
The New York Times wins engagements with The Athletic
The New York Times embraced social media by acquiring The Athletic in 2022, fully integrating it in July 2023. While acquisitions always involve some risk, this strategic business decision successfully brought social audiences and sports lovers under the NYT umbrella.
As of February 2023, Sports was The New York Times’ number one video category on TikTok for views & engagements per video over the last 365 days, far above News & Politics.
NewYork Times TikTok Engagements per Video by Category
NPR embraces modern music audiences with Tiny Desk Series
National Public Radio is the non-profit broadcaster created in 1970. Today, the media brand produces and distributes news and cultural programming. While the company began as a radio broadcast reaching thousands of local stations, they are now embracing the Social Media Era in innovative yet authentic ways.
That’s where NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts come in…
The musical series originated in 2008 and captivates younger audiences on YouTube by featuring today’s most popular artists like Alicia Keys, Mac Miller, and Leon Bridges.
What sets this series apart from others is that it features musicians in an acoustic set against a barebones stage (literally behind a tiny desk). The simple stage leaves viewers with the feeling that they’ve gotten a glimpse behind the curtain to see one of their favorite musicians beyond all the production and editing. Check out pop star Justin Timberlake rocking the Tiny Desk set for over 25 minutes:
While NPR’s YouTube audience is mostly 55+, NPR Music (which hosts Tiny Desk) has a much younger audience.
Tubular data can also see the behavioral differences between these older & younger audiences using our Consumer Insights tool. What different products and search terms are these audiences searching for?
NPR’s social audience is 41x more likely to shop for Teeth Guards on Amazon than the average social audience. Meanwhile, Venmo and Doordash are popular search terms for Tiny Desk Concert viewers which means they’re la digital native audience.
By understanding audience interests, publishers can win more brand partnerships and create content that resonates.
Audiences are comprised of dynamic viewers with multifaceted interests and unique behaviors. In 2024, creators and publishers are harnessing the power of cross-over audiences and similar topics.
Media publishers should provide a wide range of content to cater to diverse preferences. Using Tubular’s Audience Also Watches tool can help you find out what else your target demographics are interested in. This way, when you dip your toes into new video categories, you can anticipate success.
Next up from The State of Social 2024:
- Part 1: Commercial Media Takes Social by Storm
- Part 2: Meet the Multifaceted Viewer
- Part 3: Content Strategy & Platform Diversification
- Part 4: Influencers Integrating with Commercial Media
To get the full State of Social 2024 report instantly, click below.